U.S. Pat. No. 6,521,622 B1 and U.S. Application Ser. No. 61/747,723 and Ser. No. 14/142,183, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties, describe inter alia certain heterocyclic aromatic amide compounds of general Formula and their use as fungicides.

These disclosures also describe the preparation of 4-alkoxy-3-hydroxypicolinic acids as key intermediates in the preparation of these heterocyclic aromatic amide compounds. It would be useful to have an efficient and scalable process route to 4-alkoxy-3-hydroxypicolinic acids from inexpensive raw materials.